Khala Hochstedler, nursing supervisor with the Tippecanoe County Health Department, goes over some of the items that are given out with the department's syringe exchange program. The county has hosted a needle exchange at its health department offices on North Sixth Street since August. A mobile site will open in December at IU Health Arnett property in the 1500 block of Salem Street.(Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Tippecanoe County’s yearlong search for a spot willing to host a health department trailer carrying its controversial syringe exchange program paid off Monday, when Indiana Health Arnett and county commissioners cut a deal.

Starting in December, IU Health Arnett, which operates a hospital and a physicians group in Lafayette, will offer space at one of its Lafayette facilities in the 1500 block of Salem Street. The mobile location, staffed by two health department employees, will be at the IU Health property one Saturday a month to start and expand to two Saturdays a month soon after that, said Craig Rich, administrator with the Tippecanoe County Health Department.

The county has been searching with little success for the past year for a suitable host for a trailer waiting to set up shop to provide clean needles and supplies to addicts in the community’s growing heroin and opioid crisis.

Commissioner Tom Murtaugh, who voted against starting a needle exchange in November 2016, said he hoped the mobile site was the first step to closing the program at the Tippecanoe County Health Department offices on North Sixth Street. Dr. Jeremy Adler, the county’s health officer, opened that location in August, after months of being rejected by neighbors and Lafayette Mayor Tony Roswarski.

On Monday, a homeowner in the Centennial Neighborhood, which surrounds the health department’s Sixth Street offices, said adding one mobile site wasn’t nearly enough.

“That’s fine, but you’re telling me you’re not vacating Sixth Street as a needle exchange site?” asked Michael Hunt, a member of the Historic Centennial Neighborhood Association. “All you’re saying is this might bring lesser demand. … All I hear in this is, ‘Not in my back yard’ and ‘We don’t have room,’ including from the rest of the medical community. But it’s OK to dump it in this old neighborhood that already takes the preponderance of the community’s social services? I call B.S.”

Amanda Balser, the health department’s environmental secretary and grant financial supervisor, said Monday that the health department was in negotiations with another mobile site. She said the potential partner was part of the faith community, but it wasn’t Brown Street United Methodist Church, which offered its Ninth and Brown street location for a needle exchange last spring only to be rejected when the neighborhood and Roswarski objected.

Balser said that announcement could come in the next several weeks.

But she said the health department still needs more than one location before it can consider closing the health department site in Centennial Neighborhood.

She said the health department’s needle exchange site is working with roughly 100 people at this point.

“It’s true that no one wants it in their back yard,” Balser said. “We’ve heard that.”

Commissioner Tracy Brown said he and health department officials have met with Centennial Neighborhood residents who have been concerned about hosting a syringe service and complained about finding used needles on the streets and near schools.

The county opened the syringe exchange once a week at the health department in August after months of struggling to find a suitable location that didn’t raise objections from neighborhoods and the mayor’s office.

“I think we all heard the mayor and we all agree that we need some participation from health care,” Brown said. “I hope that this sends a message that health care has a place at the table on a problem that is bigger than just this one piece. … It’s a bold step on IU Health’s part.”

Dr. James Bien, IU Health Arnett’s vice president of quality and patient safety, said the company backs the county health department’s efforts to provide sterile syringes to cut down on infectious diseases and that individuals who participate in syringe service programs “are also more likely to be successfully linked to rehabilitation services.”

He said the discussion about an appropriate location – somewhat central and accessible – has been in discussion for some time.

The county has a trailer equipped to test addicts for HIV and other infectious diseases, as well as to distribute needles, tourniquets, clean water, cotton balls and other items essential to cooking and injecting heroin.

Balser said the health department would continue to conduct weekly trash sweeps in Centennial Neighborhood. She said she encouraged neighbors to report if they find syringes.

“Tell us where they are, so we can take care of this,” Balser said. “If you’re finding needles, we need to know about it. Because we were finding needles way before the syringe exchange program started.”